“Immerse Yourself In the Digital Era” was the driving theme of our Digital Reading Summits in Nairobi, Kenya and Accra, Ghana last month. Collectively, 300 representatives from 10 countries across sub-Saharan Africa convened to discuss the impact of digital reading and the opportunities it represents to readers everywhere. The participants spanned across the public, private, and non-profit sectors, and represented key industries such as education, government, publishing, technology, and telecommunications.

At both Summits, critical leaders in the African reading ecosystem voiced their support of adopting digital reading. “The key to learning is the ability to read,” said Jacob Kor, Director General of the Ghana Education Service. “The success of a nation depends on the education of its members. Reading is a life-long path to success and technology can make that possible.”

The two day summits included keynote presentations as well as customized professional workshops for Worldreader Project Managers and partnering Publishers. Publishers explored strategies for broadening the market to ensure more culturally relevant books are made available to students using existing technology. Meanwhile, Project Managers shared tactics on monitoring and evaluating (M&E) student e-reading programs, learned how to expand their projects through fundraising and advocacy, and gained essential skills through capacity building sessions.

The Worldreader team, hailing from Kenya, Ghana, United States, and Spain, was also thrilled to share its recent developments, including: the new reading app, Worldreader Mobile Web, major findings from the library initiative called LEAP Project in Kenya, launch of our new solar product, and the BLUE Box program.

David Risher, CEO and Co-Founder of Worldreader, summed up the Digital Summits perfectly: “We can keep doing what we are doing or do it in the digital way – a way that allows the right books to get to people at the right time. Let’s harness the power of technology to try and get books to every child on the planet.”  We could not agree more and are confident that with our partnering educators, publishers and other key stakeholders, we can shape the future of Africa through digital reading.

Interested in bringing digital reading to your community? Find out more about Worldreader’s Blue Box program.